2024: A Year of Opportunity for Independent Practices

’Tis the season for predictions. Prognosticators are starting to hit up my inbox and LinkedIn feed, letting me know about the primary care shortage, staff recruitment and retention issues, difficult transition to value-based care, and other top challenges in 2024.

No doubt these are very real problems that independent practices face. But I think we should shed the doom and gloom and look at the coming year as a time of opportunity for independent physician practices.

All it takes is a little thinking to see how 2024 can be the year you put your practice on a more solid, long-term footing. As we embark on the new year, here are the top opportunities I see unfolding for independent practices in 2024:

Choose from many options for a sustainable practice

Until recently, there haven’t been many options for physician-owners who were facing big decisions about the future of their practice: Whether they wanted to join a health system, close up shop and retire, or get out from under administrative and financial burdens.

Practice owners now have a variety of choices. These include joining an ACO (accountable care organization) or CIN (clinically integrated network), hiring a management services organization for administrative work, joining with like-minded practices in a physician ownership structure, selling to an entity that owns and manages practices, and more.

We continue to hear about more independent physicians wanting options other than selling to their local hospital system. Fortunately, those choices exist, and they’re worth exploring in 2024.

At Alo we’ve designed our solutions to give independent physicians a path to a more sustainable future. Our goals are to help physicians thrive while maintaining their independence and to create better capacity and access in primary care. These options include:

• The Alo CIN, allowing physicians to improve care, collaborate with other practices, and enhance revenue

• Joining our Avance Care platform for access to a primary care practice infrastructure and ability to offer enhanced, integrated patient care such as behavioral health and nutrition services

• Capital solutions, including a variety of ways to invest in their practice or create a succession plan

Transition to value-based care on your terms

I’m hard pressed to think of any topic that’s caused more confusion for physician practices than value-based care. It seems everyone wants to move to value - but they don’t have a playbook for getting there.

When we speak to physicians about transitioning to VBC, we have a simple message: Do so on your own terms. Practices understandably want to take advantage of opportunities to meet quality standards and be rewarded financially for patient outcomes. But they shouldn’t jump in with both feet until they’re ready.

This is where participating in a CIN makes sense. In the Alo CIN, for example, you get the benefits of support for improving patient care and negotiating power with health plans, but can continue in the fee-for-service world and plan your transition to value.

Over the past few months, we’ve had conversations with multiple North Carolina practices in which the owners were thinking about retiring and selling their practices. All of them were worried about not having the scale or resources to move to VBC.

We assured them that options exist to allow them to spend the remaining years of their careers focused on providing outstanding patient care while leaving the administrative burdens - including VBC - to someone else.

Be in both a CIN and an ACO

Almost every time I mention how the Alo CIN works, I get questions: “Do I have to drop the ACO I’m already in?” Or “Would I be prohibited from joining an ACO?”

Just like with questions about transitioning to value, there’s good news on the ACO vs. CIN front. You don’t have to choose one or the other. In fact, 2024 should be a great year for independent physicians across the state to explore both.

For some practices that feel ready to take on more risk, an ACO could make sense. For others just dipping their toes in the value water, a CIN could be the best option.

When I explain this, I usually get another question: “What’s the catch?” Well, there is no catch. You can join a CIN for a better fee-for-service model and participate in an ACO for the chance to get year-end incentive compensation for hitting your metrics.

Staying independent in 2024 and beyond

When we say independent, many people conjure up a smaller practice, somewhat siloed or isolated, owned by a single physician or two. That is not how it has to be. We believe true independence means physicians having autonomy—the ability to choose how to care for their patients, choose their clinical support teams, maintain their schedules, and be reimbursed fairly, relative to their efforts and outcomes. We believe independence is being in control of your career both in the short-term and long-term. To get there, it could mean joining a CIN, exploring capital investment solutions, or simply starting a conversation about your practice’s future.  

I’m confident that in 2024 independent physicians will continue leading the way in personalized, patient-centered care. And while the year will hold challenges, it also holds the promise of a vibrant, sustainable future. So, embrace the possibilities, stay true to your values, and take advantage of a partner like Alo in order to thrive in 2024 and beyond.